What is happening now with the government shutdown is not good for our country in any way, shape, or form. It is damaging our economy, our reputation and our very soul. No one is benefiting from this action and many are suffering in many ways.

There has to be common sense, realistic money talk and sincere actions to bring this shutdown to an end now.

The public did not elect our representatives to get paid for not doing anything. If this sort of action happened in private enterprise the employees who are not working would get fired in an instant.

And the same thing can happen to elected officials. It just takes a little longer, for the very next time they are up for election, to get them unemployed.

This action is not immigration reform nor is it border security. It is politics at its very worse. Grow up and act like adults. All of current show is simply childish.

Diana Raske

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A path to moderation

I would like to express my appreciation for Tom Carroll and his submission regarding Bill Niskanen, the Niskanen Center and inviting readers to visit the website.

I followed his advice and read the policy essay I found there. It was very encouraging to see that there is a possible path forward through the quagmire of partisan politics, if we can return to a moderate centrist stance.

Thank you Mr. Carroll and I thank The Bulletin for printing his Guest Column as well as printing the columns written by David Brooks of the New York Times on a regular basis.

Sherry Oelkers

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The need for Fox News?... yes, but

We don’t need to “hate” Fox News to know that there is something not quite right. But how does one objectively criticize a media network without any bias?

My litmus test to judge credibility is climate change; not what a network claims or says, not by listing and critiquing the many contributions one can find online (Google “Fox News and climate change”).

But instead go and ask a different question. Ask, “what do Fox News viewers believe about climate change?”

Now we find that Fox News viewers have come to believe some very strange things; that climate science is not settled, but still widely contested. That climate scientists are biased and “manipulate” data in order to get funding for their pet projects, that peer reviewed research is a politically motivated liberal opinion.

Such biases are not present in consumers of what could be labeled “nonconservative” media.

If Fox News is creating such a distorted picture of what is arguably the most critical, existential issue of our time, what else are they reporting on that creates distortions of equal significance?

Should media privileged with access to the general public not be held accountable to some standard of evidence and science based reporting when judged by the outcomes they create?

Should this not be a basic standard in a modern, 21st century society that depends on an informed public to make decisions impacting its collective future?

Klaus Mager

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Bad timing from Trump

President Donald Trump, presumably, had control of the two houses of Congress for almost two years, and only now, when he has lost control of the House of Representatives, has he opted to play his Build the Wall card — an issue he claims he promised his supporters in the 2016 election.

Question: why didn’t he pursue this matter with such focus and energy when he had total control with Republican majorities?

The apparent answer is because those bodies would not have supported the idea but now he can blame the opposition party for whatever happens: a government shutdown and/or the executive branch forced to steal funds from other agencies and programs to build a wall.